ticular occasion for advertin to
them at the time. Wearied oot at length wi' Mrs. Robertson's truisms,
and disgusted wi' her incivility and uncourteous manner to me, I took up
my hat, and decamped, wi' as little ceremony as I had been received. I
was, in truth, baith provoked and perplexed by her extraordinary
treatment o' me, and couldna at a' conjecture to what it could be owin.

But let the reader fancy, if he can, what was my surprise when I fand
mysel' treated in almost precisely the same way in every ither hoose at
which I ca'ed subsequently to this. There was, in every instance, the
same astonishment expressed at seein me, the same cauldness exhibited,
and the same mysterious silence maintained durin my visit. I was
perfectly confounded at it; but couldna, of course, ask ony explanation,
as there was naething sae palpably oot o' joint as to admit o't. Havin
made my roun' o' ca's wi' the success and comfort I hae mentioned, I
returned to my quarters, and, orderin a tumbler o' toddy, sat down
amongst a heap o' newspapers, to amuse mysel' the best way I could till
bedtime. The first paper I took up was a Glasgow one, published that
day. I skimmed it ower till I cam to a paragraph wi' the followin takin
title--"Desperate Ruffian." This catched my e'e at ance; for I was aye
fond o' readin aboot desperate ruffians, and horrible accidents, and
atrocious murders, &c. &c. "So," says I to mysel', "here's a feast." And
I threw up my legs on the firm on which I was seated, drew the candle
nearer me, took a mouthfu' oot o' my tumbler, and made every
preparation, in short, for a quiet, deliberate, comfortable read; and
this I got, to my heart's content. The paragraph, which began wi'
"Desperate Ruffian," went on thus:--

"This morning, a scene, at once one of the most disgraceful and
ludicrous which we have witnessed for some time, took place in one of
the coach-offices of this city. A fellow of the name of William Smith, a
young man of about twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, from ----,
who is charged with various acts of swindling, and is well known as a
person of infamous character, was apprehended on a fugae warrant, by our
two active criminal officers, Messrs. Rob and Ramage, in the ----
coach-office, just as he was about to take out a ticket for Greenock,
whither he intended to proceed for the purpose of embarking for America
with his ill-got gains. The ruffian, on being first apprehended, denied
his name; but, f